Sheriff Hale drank her fifth cup of coffee and leaned back in her terrible rolling chair at her desk. The screech of the rusted hinges was the most noise the silent station had heard in hours. She had been reading, sorting, and organizing the files from the Grayson Sleuth for the past eight days. At first, her search seemed to have been a useless effort on her part, and she was in the midst of giving up when she found something interesting in the family history files.

Fifteen years ago, Meredith Redd was murdered by 'Hunters' as the were-bears called them, on the east coast when she went as a negotiation liason for the Grayson Sleuth. She and her five year old son had traveled together, as she thought it would be a fun occasion to spend time with young Jarren.

The pair had been missing for three days before the Reik Sleuth Alpha, Alpha Darrence Reik, reported their disappearnce to Alpha Logan Grayson. By the time Alpha Logan Grayson, his wife Benny Grayson, and Liam Redd found them, Jarren's mother was dead, skinned for her pelt, and Jarren was physically and emotionally scarred.

Other than a sad story, Sheriff Hale would have filed the Redd folder away except for the one hand-written sticky note on the back flap of the folder. In loopy, elegant scrawl, the words 'Not Hunters?' was written, as if the ex Alpha Logan Grayson had thought that the murders were commited by someone else. Intrigued, Sheriff Hale had made phone calls to stations from the area where the murders were committed and had the case files emailed to her. She also made one phone call to Scottlin Reik so that she could interview him about the visit the Redd's had made. She was meeting him in thirty minutes. Meanwhile, she scanned through the files mailed to her from the other stations and found the coroners report on Meredith Redd and the Medical Report on Jarren Redd.

Meredith Redd died of severe hemorrhaging all over her body and shock to her immune system. The M.E. reported that she must have lived for a day or two after her skin was removed, exposed to the cold air, diseases, and vermin. Jarren Redd was admitted to the hospital with severe chemical burns and trauma to his olfactory systems, two broken legs, and minor cuts and bruises. The five year old had been able to tell them that on the way to the seminar, he and his mother had been jumped, bound, gagged, and drugged with what was later determined to be chloroform. While his mother was being drugged and skinned, a constant application of chloroform or amonia had been applied to his face via rag. That inhalation of chemicals had been devestating to the young bears sensitive system and the doctors deduced that he would have reduced olfactory abilities if he ever recovered the ability to smell at all.

Sheriff Hale had no idea that the young man was suffering from the affliction and she doubted anyone else knew, as the report had been sealed in a child abuse investigation until recently. Sheriff Hale had questions for the Redd's but thought she should ask Scottlin for his information before she went to possible suspects.

At eight o' clock, Sheriff Hale left to head to the local diner for coffee and breakfast with Scottlin Reik.

He showed up promptly at their arranged time of eight thirty and the two ordered pancakes and more coffee.

"So what did you need to ask me?"

"How old are you?" she wanted to date this before she attempted to ask him something that may have happened before his time.

"Thirty-one" he replied.

"Oh... you're older than I am..." that came as quite a shock, especially because she had become accustomed to the young age of Alpha Grayson.

"Yes, my face can be deceptive" he said with a laugh. The waitress came by and placed the large breakfast plates in front of them.

"Alright, good. Fifteen years ago, a woman named Meredith Redd visited your home town and your Sleuth to do some sort of seminar, do you know the events surrounding that?"

Scottling Reik's face fell. He gently put his fork down and cleared his throat and his brow furrowed.

"That is something I remember quite vividly" he replied hesitantly, "that incident caused ripples and feuds that still reverberate to this day."

"Can you tell me what you remember?" Sheriff Hale pulled out her book and a pen and prepared to write.

"Well I know that Mrs. Redd was coming to give an informative speech about why it's important to belong to a Sleuth, if you recall, we don't make everyone become part of the Sleuth, it's an option. We have a high concentration of Sleuthless bears, or rogues, living on the outskirts of our property. I met Mrs. Redd. She was very positive and bubbly. She had the greatest of intentions and had spent months trying to persuade my father to allow her to even give the seminar. Her persistence and determination rang true and eventually, although begrudgingly, my father permitted her to stay with the Sleuth and allow the rogues onto our Sleuth territory for the presentation. She and Jarren disappeared the evening after the presentation. I once heard my father speculating that the Hunters left Jarren alive because he was so young. We had been having a high rate of murders by Hunters at that time, but after Mrs. Redd's murder, things went silent for quite a while" he finished his sentence but the look on his face appeared as if he wanted to say more.

"What?"

"Well, I don't know what you know of my father, but he was an unnecessarily vicious man who did not take kindly to being questioned. So when Jarren said something to me when we were alone in his hospital room, I just tucked it away and never mentioned it" Scottlin seemed to be growing ever more uncomfortable, as if he had truly put the information in a deep place, and pulling it forward had brought back painful memories.

"What did he say?" Sheriff Hale was entranced.

"He said 'the rogues. The rogues did it'. But, I thought maybe he was confused. I was sixteen and... terrified of my own father" Scottlin seemed truly anxious and nervous.

"And Jarren never mentioned it again?" Lauren Hale asked.

"No. Never again. At least not that I heard of. His father was with him from everyday then on" Scottlin took a drink of what had to be scalding coffee but he didn't seem to be bothered.

Lauren sighed and massaged her temples. Her vision was beginning to blur from exhaustion.

"So, if these rogue bears did do it, what would be their motivation?"she finally asked.

"Well, rogue bears aren't always this way, but for the most part, bears who want to be alone or in pairs are generally more angry or volatile people, and they don't like people snooping or impeding on their privacy" Alpha Reik appeared to be giving this a heavy amount of thought.

"So her insistence on this meeting could have been a trigger? But if that's true they could have just not gone. No one could have ordered, because they were independent, like you said. So what else?" pressed the brunette.

Alpha Reik didn't speak for a minute, pondering different possibilities and scenarios, until a truly shocked and horrified expression dawned his face.

"Hypothetically, if the rogues had been working with the Hunters, then they could have made a deal for her pelt" the Alpha was starting to see puzzle pieces fall into order.

"Why would her pelt have been so consequential? From what I can tell, Hunter's are ruthless and they don't care who they hurt to get a were-bear pelt"

"Meredith Redd was a red-head" Scottlin whispered.

"What does that mean?" Sheriff Hale was not making the connection.

"Only red-heads are capable of becoming auburn or red-haired bears. I have only seen one in my life, and that was Meredith Redd. They are more rare than were-polar bears, and we keep an eye on Sarai constantly, it's why we trained her to be a warrior, so she could protect herself. A pelt like that, of an auburn bear, could be worth billions" Scottlin Reik stared intently at Sheriff Hale.

"So a rare bear enters the territory, meets rogues, disappears, is skinned, and then your Sleuth is suddenly left alone by Hunter's after being attacked for years? I don't think so" Sheriff Hale replied. She had found a lead, and now she had work to do.

Sheriff Hale stood up and left her half eaten plate on the table. Lauren Hale halted to a stop, almost bumping into the semi-standing Scottling.

"Oh, before I forget. I don't know what this means yet, so let's keep this quiet, ok? I don't want anymore information being leaked". With a nod, Scottlin Reik followed her and outside the diner, Sheriff Hale remembered something. She turned and hugged the unsuspecting Alpha.

"I'm sorry that brought up bad memories but this has been exponentially helpful" she whispered, then released him. He stood on the sidewalk, watching her bustle to her car.

Meanwhile, Alpha Kaddian sat in his black SUV at a red light, watching as Sheriff Hale embraced Scottlin Reik outside the local diner. When the light turned green, he turned his head forward and drove home in the silence of his vehicle.